


Inseperable

by with_wit_and_perfect_timing



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Best Friends, Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Bottom Bucky Barnes, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes Remembers, Bucky Barnes Returns, Hurt Steve Rogers, M/M, Modern Bucky Barnes, Museums, Natasha Feels, Natasha-centric, POV Natasha Romanov, POV Steve Rogers, Past Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Bucky Barnes, Protective Natasha Romanov, Protective Steve, Protective Steve Rogers, Quote: Who the hell is Bucky?, Steve Feels, Steve Rogers Feels, Up all night to get Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-14
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-08-22 09:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8280493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/with_wit_and_perfect_timing/pseuds/with_wit_and_perfect_timing
Summary: Natasha drags Steve to the Smithsonian to teach him about his past, not realizing what part of the past it holds for him.





	

                “Nat, for the last time, I’m not a fossil.”

            “You fit the description perfectly, Rogers, stop fighting it.” Natasha leaned forward on Steve’s desk, her natural curly hair falling delicately on her neck and shoulders, a dictionary in one hand.

            Steve looked up at her and closed his book. “ _No,_ a fossil is a prehistoric organism that has been preserved in rock. They found _me_ in ice.”

            Nat rolled her eyes and began to waltz aimlessly around the room. She was bored out of her mind.

            “You also forgot one major difference between me and a fossil.” Steve continued, picking up his book again and finding his place.

             “Oh yeah? And what would that be, soldier?”

            “They found _me_ alive. Fossils are dead.”

            Natasha let out one of her tired, airy laughs, and Steve couldn’t help but chuckle along with her.

            It was a lazy Sunday, with no missions or errands to tend to. Nat and Steve were stationed in DC, working with Fury and the rest of SHEILD, practically waiting around for orders on the next plan.

            Steve decided it was the appropriate opportunity to catch up on all the reading he had missed for the past seventy years. He had just began reading _The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe._

“You know that’s a kids book right?” Nat called from his bookshelf, rifling through his novels.

            Steve ignored her. He knew how restless Natasha got, when there was no butt to kick. He silently flipped through the pages, hopelessly lost in the mystical world of Narnia.

            From Natasha’s point of view, this was the perfect day to go out and live life, perhaps even like a normal human being.

            For Steve, it was the absolute worst time. So when Nat grabbed Steve’s book and flung it away dramatically to get his attention, he wasn’t exactly over the moon.

            “Natasha!” Steve exclaimed as his book fluttered to the ground.

            “Steve!” Nat mocked, taking hold of his unnaturally broad shoulders. “We can’t just sit around and wait for something to happen!” She stated.

            “Actually we can.” Steve mumbled, but he knew it was no use. Natasha was off on a rant.

            “You need to go out and see the world. We’re here, waiting around for something interesting to happen. We’re in DC for Christ’s sake, the perfect place for you to learn about our American generation. Learn about all the history you missed.”

            Then something flicked on in Nat’s mind, like a light switch.

            “That’s it.” She said with a devious twinkle in her eye, a twinkle Steve was oh-so familiar with.

            “What?” Steve asked with dread. “What’s ‘it’?” He was exhausted from all the brain wracking he had endured, trying to figure out what his partner was getting at. To be honest, he just wanted to get his book back. Why was Mr. Tumnus crying?

            “History, Cap,” She straightens up, arms crossed over her chest. “American history.”

            Steve swallowed dreadfully, because he understood exactly where she was getting at.

            “In fact, the National _Museum_ of American History.” Nat said formally.

            “Oh geez,” Steve muttered, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He knew this was coming. Nat had been constantly hinting at it for the past two months, and he had prepared himself for the inevitable.

            “C’mon, Cap,” Nat began, playfully pulling his heavily muscled arm.

            Steve smirked, and lobbed his head to one side, accepting his fate. He knew there was no getting out of this. Natasha was committed, and when she was committed, there was no escape.

           

            ________________________________________________________________________

 

            So an hour later, they stood in front of the grand museum, a huge building with Smithsonian banners hanging and flapping in the breeze. The two were wearing their disguises, Nat with her grey hoodie and high tops, and Steve with his deep blue sweatshirt and dark baseball cap.

            Steve looked down at Nat, who stared ahead with deviation plastered on her face. Once inside, Steve attempted to take it all in. There weren’t many people, surprisingly. They milled around excitedly, clearly anticipating the exhibits to come.

            Steve and Natasha took the elevator to the first floor of the Smithsonian, which was mostly dedicated to the Industrial Revolution. Model cars, trains, and planes decorated the floor. No matter how hard he tried, Steve couldn’t believe how far transportation had come since 1945.

            Next up was Natasha’s personal favorite: the star spangled banner.

            “So this is the first one, huh?” Steve stood in front of the display of the very first American flag ever made, ripped and mostly in shambles but _woah_. His face was calm, but his eyes danced with excitement.

            “Maybe I can call in a favor, get you one of these bad boys as a quilt.” Nat quips.

            “Ya know what, Romanov?”

 

            __________________________________________________________________

 

            They moved onto the entertainment industry. Nat needed to show him all the exhibits on the movies he had missed throughout the years.

            “You know, all these great movies have been produced, and I still can’t get over how the Wizard of Oz was remade with color.” Steve chuckled.

            Steve looked like he was in wonderland, looking at all the props in awe.

            “You still need to see Jurassic Park,” Nat told him as he gapes at the animatronic dinosaur. “Why do you act so shocked? Didn’t they have velociraptors around when you were a kid?”

            Nat had to dodge a punch to the shoulder.

            After two hours of close examination of every display, Nat stretched and yawned, arching her back in attempt to get a crick out. Steve noticed and checked his watch.

             “Gee, we’ve been in here for a while. D’you wanna head out?” he asked, his hand touching the small of her back.

            Nat smiled tenderly, a glint of mischief in her eyes. “No, no way. We still have a whole nother story.”

            Steve’s jaw drops slightly, “There’s more?”

            “You don’t think they would leave the war out of American history, do you?”

 

            ________________________________________________________________________

 

            This.

            _This._  
            This is where Steve was meant to be. The story they told on the plaques was only a summary of the memories Steve kept in his heart. They showed only a snippet of the things Steve had studied when he was younger. All the displays of the military weapons like assault rifles, knives, and machine guns was what Steve had spent years memorizing, and he never forgot.

            Nat enjoyed watching Steve in his own world, geeking out, and reliving every moment he had experienced as a young soldier. Steve went from one exhibit to another, excitedly reading and examining each and every one, catching every detail.

            After a few minutes, Nat heard her stomach growl.

            “Hey, sailor, how’s about I grab us some fuel from a vending machine?” she offered, coming up beside him.

            Steve looked up from the display of military uniforms with stars in his eyes. “Oh yeah, get me anything.”

            Nat nods and begins to walk away, in search of food.

            “Oh, and Natasha?”

            She swivels on her heel.

            “Th-Thank you for…all of this.”

            Nat grins, “Anytime, Cap.”

            While Natasha was off purchasing processed fat from a metal box, Steve sneaks off to the most mind-boggling exhibit: his own.

            There was a whole section dedicated to the “World’s First Superhero”. Little kids, with their exasperated parents in tow, pointed and squealed at the uniforms of the Howling Commandos, all lined up. Steve would never get over the way he felt when the children’s faces lit up when they got to feel the life-sized replica of his shield.

            Out of the corner of his eye, Steve spotted something. Someone…familiar. He turned around, and his heart stopped.

            Nat looked all over the World War II section, but Steve was nowhere to be found. Gripping the meal bars in her hands, she made her way to the Captain America exhibit. When she spotted Steve, she stopped in her tracks, and her heart rose to her throat.

            “Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers were inseparable on both schoolyard and battlefield.”

            “Shit.” Nat stood there, twenty feet away from Steve, his back turned to her.

            In front of him was the James Buchanan Barnes memorial, a display dedicated to the “fallen soldier”. On the memorial showed a photo of Bucky, along with a clip of Steve and Bucky, side by side, laughing at something one of them had said.

            Nat pocketed the bars, and slowly made her way to Steve’s side, making sure to stay just out of his peripheral vision. The look on Steve’s face said it all. His jaw clenched, his eyebrows tilted up, and his eyes shiny.

            “Steve…I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

            Steve looked down at her, his eyes lingering for a moment on the video of Bucky’s   
smile – his _smile. God,_ it was the world. He couldn’t take his eyes off of him.

            “Steve?”

            “Natasha?” His head didn’t move.

            “Are you okay?”

            He didn’t answer.

            A fallen soldier…

            “Barnes was the only Howling Commando to give his life in service of his country.” Said the recording in an official voice.

            Steve sighed deeply and pressed his lips into a thin line, reading the inscription.

            “Steve?”

            “Natasha?”

            “Are you going to be okay?” she asked again, her brow furrowing.

            “I…” he began, finally taking his eyes off of the display, only to look at the ground and shake his head in dazed confusion. “I need to sit down.”

            They found a secluded bench, around the corner near the restrooms, where no one could see them. Steve slumped in the seat, his fists shoved into his pockets. Natasha sat next to him, as she always would, and kept her hand on his knee, and his head was on her shoulder. Steve heaved slowly, deep breathes, but Nat could tell he was struggling to keep his heart steady, she could feel his pulse through her skin.

            “Do you want to talk about it?” Nat asked in a low voice.

            “No.” Steve said abruptly, but he inhaled quickly so Nat knew that he regretted being so short.

            “I’m sorry,” he said softly, and sat up, leaning his head against the wall.

            “Don’t be,” Natasha ordered, looking at him.

            “I just…I haven’t talked about it. To anyone. Except…” his voice trailed off and he began to look distant again. Nat knew what happened when Steve began to look distant, and she immediately knew she had to reel him back in.

            “Except?” she prodded. She had to do something.

            “Peggy. And barely even that. It’s just…”

            “It’s just hard,” Nat finished, rubbing his knee.

            “He was…” Bucky.

            “Was the display true? Best friends since childhood?”

            “I knew Bucky before I knew myself.” Steve gave Nat a sad smile.

            “You guys must’ve had a blast together.”

            Steve thought about it, clenching his jaw.

            “Sometimes…and other times, we didn’t have fun at all. But we had each other, and when that happened, that was all we needed.”

            Nat smiled, pursing her lips. Steve didn’t know it, but his face lit up when he talked about Bucky, like a lantern. His cheeks became rosy, and his eyes sparkled.

            They were silent for a little bit, Steve dreamily stared at the wall, and Nat stared at him, taking in every feature, because Steve looked so happy and so sad at the same time, and it took a while to figure out why.

            “You loved him, didn’t you?”

            Steve looked at her and scanned her face. “Of course, he was closer than family.”

            Nat tilted her head and gave a half smile. “You know what I mean, Cap.”

            Steve inhaled slowly, and the corners of his mouth turned down towards his chin, like he always did when he was about to say something meaningful, when he had to give a calculated answer to get his point across.

            “You don’t have to say anything.” Nat reassured, leaning forward slightly.

             “Then I won’t.” Steve said, cocking his head to the side and flashed her one of his killer side grins.

            Natasha returned the grin, and added a chuckle.

            “He was…” Steve tried again.

            “Everything.” Nat finished, patting his knee and standing up.

            “Can we not go just yet?” Steve said in a small voice.

            “Anything you want.”

            “I want…I want to talk about it.”

            “No one is forcing to you to do anything, Steve.”

            “I know.”

            And he did. And he talked. He told Natasha about stories when they were younger, in school, and holidays, like New Year’s and how Bucky would always come when Steve or his mom got sick, to take care of them, or when Steve and Bucky spent three months shining shoes and selling paper just to surprise Steve’s mom with a decent Christmas tree one year, and how long it took the boys, once they were on their own, to put up Christmas lights. Natasha had never heard Steve’s real laugh before…it was nice.

            “Did anything…ever happen between you two?” Nat asked, after a few moments of silence.

            Steve raised his eyebrows, and inhaled again, calculating his response, his eyes glued to the ground. “No, no…nothing happened. I wanted to…but back then it was too risky. Sometimes…sometimes I’d like to think that Bucky felt…ya know…the same way. But…” Steve shook his head. “He always wanted to protect me. I was getting picked on enough as it was; he would never put me in that kind of danger. He would – I guess – show it in different ways though.”

            Natasha nodded, but didn’t say anything. What could she say? There was nothing she could do. Bucky was dead, and he had been dead for almost 70 years, even if he had survived the fall, he would be ancient.

            Steve still had his head down, completely silent. The kind of silent that comes when you’re mourning, deeply. Then he leaned back against the wall again, and Natasha could see it – a single tear trailing down his cheek.

            “Oh, Steve,” Nat clicked her tongue softly and laid her head on Steve’s shoulder, rubbing his leg tenderly.

            “You miss him so much.”

            “He’s gone.” Steve’s voice cracked.

            “He saved your life, and so many others. He died a hero.”

            “Bucky was more than a hero.” Steve said simply, his voice deepening.

            The display didn’t do him justice, Steve thought. He could build an entire museum on Bucky Barnes, and even _that_ couldn’t contain how much good he had did to the world. Bucky was the sun in the morning and the moon at night. Every good memory came crashing into Steve’s mind the moment he set eyes on the memorial. Everything he had repressed for years, feelings he tried not to feel. Numb it with ice, he told himself. He’s never coming back, he told himself.

 

            That moment, in the streets, when the Winter Soldier flew through the air, and the mask fell off, everything froze. Held in suspended animation. The soldier stood uneasily, and turned around.

            That face.

            He knew that face, possibly more than he knew his own. The face he saw every morning, walking to school. The face with the smile that sparkled every time Steve made a joke. The blue-green eyes that bore into his soul when Bucky – though rarely – was serious, and meant what he said. The jawline, strong and dominant.

                Steve couldn’t believe it. He didn’t _want_ to believe it. He didn’t want to be wrong…but…he couldn’t be wrong? He could recognize him anywhere. But…it wasn’t possible, was it? There was no way…

            The moment seemed endless, and yet it ended so quickly, Steve barely had time to catch it.

            “Bucky?”

           

**Author's Note:**

> Soooo this is just a draft, I will go back and make adorable changes where I see fit. A teeny bit of fluff just for your enjoyment. Comment your thoughts!


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